Note: The following is the output of transcribing from a video recording. Although the transcription, which was done with software, is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or [software] transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the meeting, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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Unknown Speaker 0:06
Good evening and welcome to say brain Valley schools Board of Education meeting. Please stand and join us in saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge
Unknown Speaker 0:17
allegiance to the flag.
Unknown Speaker 0:20
States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation,
Unknown Speaker 0:24
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice.
Unknown Speaker 0:37
Everyone. Christy, can you please call the roll?
Unknown Speaker 0:41
You bet.
Unknown Speaker 0:42
Mr. Aaron. Hi, Mr. Berthold. Mr. Garcia here, Dr. martyr
Unknown Speaker 0:47
present.
Unknown Speaker 0:48
Miss Pierce here. Mrs. Raglan here. Miss siegrist. Here.
Unknown Speaker 0:51
Thanks, Christy. Any addendums or changes to the agenda this evening? No. Alrighty, then. That brings us actually to to visitors. But before we before we dive into any more of the agenda, I do want to share and emphasize that the district’s mission statement is this board and Dr. Hat ads North Star that we make all decisions within the context of educating each student in a safe learning environments so that they may develop to their highest potential and become contributing citizens. We do not take that mission lightly. Our focus is on each and every student having access to the very best opportunities in an environment that is inclusive of every child. few housekeeping items, before we move on to the meat of our agenda this evening. If everybody could just take a quick look at your cell phone. And make sure those are nice and quiet. Please do want to remind you that our meeting is recorded this evening. It is also live streamed but you may access it on the district website. I don’t know if it’s there this evening, but it will be there tomorrow for sure. And then one additional reminder that Boulder County Public Health has recently passed a mandate that masks are required in all public spaces. We don’t have any visitors this evening. So that brings us very quickly to Agenda Item Number four, which is our audience participation. Thanks, Brian. Thank you, Dick. And if you’ll just bear with me one second while I take a look here. Okay, so before we move on to non agenda items, public participation, I just want to confirm that there’s nobody here this evening to speak on an agenda item. Is that correct? All right. Thank you. Also want to look how many of you signed up to sign to speak on the district website and also signed up on the sheet? Anybody who did not take Sorry, I should I clearly am not a teacher. Am I? Okay, let’s start this over again. Did you arrive at the evening at the meeting this evening? Sign up to speak and you did not sign up on the district website. Jen, okay. And Natalie. Okay, great. Good for me to know. All right. Okay, so the Board of Education values, please know We value your community, the community perspectives and feedback from parents, teachers, staff, and community. During Board of Education meetings, the board will hear up to 30 minutes of public comments on non agenda items, and 30 minutes of public comment on agenda specific items. To allow for the greatest number of community members to participate. Each person will be limited to three minutes of public comments. At the end of three minutes. I will thank you for speaking and invite the next speaker to the podium. As the length of public public comment time is limited, it is possible that not everyone will be able to share their public comments. In these cases, community members can add their name to the public comment list for the next scheduled Board of Education meeting, or email their comments to board of education at sv st.org. We will include in the public record as part of the minutes those comments for individuals who did not speak but did sign up. Email the comments I just said that if you’re speaking to a non agenda item this evening. Please limit your comments to matters of public concern about the district if you have a concern about a specific industry. Did you will or personnel matter? please reach out directly to a board of education member Dr. Haddad or the HR department and we will be happy to assist you with next steps. I do also want to let you know, given that we have so many speakers signed up this evening, if there is somebody who has spoken at the podium, and you agree with their comments, you are able to simply say, you know, I agree with Speaker x, and to allow more opportunity for additional speakers, you certainly don’t have to do that. But please know it is an option. Alright, Brian, are you ready with the timer there?
Unknown Speaker 5:41
I’m ready. 30 minutes. And
Unknown Speaker 5:42
do you have 30 minutes also? Great. I won’t do that tonight then. All right, one. One last thing. Before we start, I do want you all to know that it’s been a long standing practice of the board not to address or address or respond during public comment of the agenda. But please do know that we are listening and we do greatly value and appreciate your perspectives. Alright, and I’m gonna apologize in advance for for names. And if you could please let me know how to correctly pronounce your name. I would appreciate it. The first speaker this evening is Mandy Blum. Rick, had I right? Success right out of the gate. Mandy, if you could please state your name for the record and your address. Okay, and your address and then Brian will start timing after Thank you, Brian, after you complete your address. So my name is Mandy bloom, right?
Unknown Speaker 6:37
I live at 2212 Mariner drive here in Longmont, 80503. And I’m here to really voice support today, and I’m going to keep it short because there’s a lot of people behind me who are going to be more eloquent, and I want to give time to the youth. I’ve been doing work advocacy work with the district for over 10 years, some of you have seen me before. I work with the st. Rain Valley Safe Schools coalition, a lot of work. And the first thing I wanted to do was give the district credit. Over the 10 years that I’ve done this work. We’ve seen our kids, specifically LGBTQ kids feel safer, be more authentic, my kids are now in high school and middle school. And the differences I see in in just their ability to express their authentic selves is amazing. And some of that is bringing in professional development for our teachers and our staff that gave them the language to speak to this, to understand what the experiences and issues were. I don’t I don’t even know how to express how important it’s been. And to the district, no matter what voices they’re hearing, know that this is how we keep our students safe, is give them the space to be themselves. Our equity department is amazing. I’ve worked with them personally. If they’re going to be doing all of this training for all the schools, we have a huge district we need to increase their funding we need to increase their personnel and we need to make sure that they continue to be trained by people who have the lived experience of being LGBTQ of being black or being Latino or being Asian Pacific indigenous right of disabilities or kiddos with disabilities. All of that I can’t speak for any of those people but I know that they need their voices heard. So just continue to prioritize that and I just wanted it on record because I know this summer there’s been a lot of voices who have said some stuff that could be incredibly damaging to our kids and and I know you’re going to do the right thing but I just we need that support you need to know we’re here and that we value these kids. And I’m gonna stop there and yield the floor to some some of the other people who are going to be much more eloquent than myself. Thank you. Thank you, man.
Unknown Speaker 9:03
Appreciate it. Next step this evening we have bethey lunardi. Hi bethey I think you probably heard me say to Mandy name, address and then we’ll start timing Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 9:24
my name is Beth Elian rd for 26 Judson at 501. I’m co director of a queer endeavor professor at CU and parent of a soon to be st frame Valley student. For the past seven years, our organization has worked in partnership with the district in an effort to support nearly 1000 educators to create safer, more affirming schools for LGBTQ students. This effort is ongoing in part because data even in this district, continue to suggest that these students often suffer tremendously in schools. This summer queer endeavor hosted an equity Institute how Longmont High School. The institute was first framed by the district as a collaborative endeavor, then as an endeavor the district needed to separate themselves from And finally, as an endeavor the district outright refused to support by pulling nearly $15,000 of funding for teacher attendees just hours before the event. And a follow up news article, our organization learned that we were no longer partners that equity work would be handled internally. misguided constituents continue to mischaracterize the work of a queer endeavor. And with no response from the district, a partner of seven years, who just weeks before collaboratively developed our 2021 22 scope of work with multiple stakeholders and that span the year. If you know me and us, it’s no surprise that this move really hurt. We are educators and as an organization committed to partnership with districts doing equity work, we know that this road is long, and we also know that having integrity and moments of pushback is hard. In our view, this move or this reaction by the district and district leadership was not grounded in equity, but instead in fear and and a lack of understanding of what this work is all about. Moving forward, we have questions we want to know what the district plans to do to support educators with high quality professional learning around LGBTQ topics. We want to know who will deliver the content. We want to know the district’s plan to implement Hb 19 1190 to the curriculum bill that demands the inclusion of minorities identities, and we want to know how the district will respond when constituents push back on that inclusion. Also from the board, I want to know is this business as usual, it valuable partnerships that have positively impacted the district can be terminated so hastily and without consideration of the impact of community, teachers, students and families. Last in this polarized and dysfunctional political climate, I want to know what the district’s commitments are to proactively doing right by its most vulnerable students. These are our students of color are undocumented students, our students for whom English is not their home language, our queer and trans students and our queer students of color. And to be clear, queer is a label that many youth in this district use to identify themselves. How will the district prioritize not only their safety, but their joy, their beautiful identities that they bring? Because right now all I know is that the most misinformed voices continue to keep those populations from accessing equal educational opportunities that are promised by public education.
Unknown Speaker 12:30
Thank you. bethey. Marin golden. Hi, Marin. I think you heard me about name and address please. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome.
Unknown Speaker 12:45
I’m gonna try not to cry. I’m Marin golden. My address is 1250 kinnikinnick court here in Longmont. I am the parent of two children in the district, one of whom is identifies as queer. I’m so moved by speech and also her work in the district. And I also I wrote something down but I can’t read it now because I’m the truth is I’m I feel the same way. I feel pretty heartbroken by the district’s choice to end that partnership. I was relieved and in part chose St. Brian because I felt like this district was taking a stand to protect children like mine. I know you all know the statistics on suicide for kids in that category. And for me, the protection in the community of learning is of the utmost important for kids and mental health and well being enjoy. So I have the same questions that Bethany has, I want to know why I want to know what your plan is, I want to know why on earth you would make that decision to so callously cut off a partnership that has invested so much. I also recently discovered that the phrase antiracism had been taken out of the equity statement, I want to understand why I don’t understand why district that has the beautiful ideals that you’ve professed and that I’ve honestly experienced so much effort on why that phrase would be taken out, unless it’s a response to to a type of energy like I just don’t understand how anybody in this district could could not stand behind the concept of anti racism. So I also am happy to defer the rest of my time to anybody who also wants to speak on this topic, but I just want it to be known that although many of us have just been quietly at home grateful for the work that you’re doing or doing our ally work in partnership with you. It appears that the the louder screaming voices are getting heard and I want to make sure that the many many of us that are actually just here to support the most vulnerable are also getting hurt. So Thank you for listening and thank you for the work you’re doing in this difficult time. Thank you, Mary. Sadie Roberts.
Unknown Speaker 15:11
Hi Sadie.
Unknown Speaker 15:16
My name is Sadie Roberts. My address is 2400 Sherman Street, Longmont, Colorado 80501. So to start off, I’m a graduate from skyline high school as of 2019. For years I’ve been working within the district to improve conditions for queer students. For context, when I was in high school, I was president of my school’s GSA and regularly attended and spoke on panels at the GSA socials, those were usually by annual, I was also a member of my school’s sources of strength program. So I spoke to a lot of students and also had a lot of experiences myself. I really have a lot to say, but I’ll keep it as short and sweet as I can. Funding should never have been pulled the way that it was for queer endeavors conference taking away that resource put students in this district into direct and palpable danger. I am glad that something was able to be done by the community Thank you out Boulder. But this action by the district is quite frankly, unacceptable. withdrawing support for in queer endeavor shows that their message of acceptance and education on the issues of minority students is being directly opposed. And the SV VSD has a contradicting message of its own, which I know is not true, because I’ve heard your things I’ve seen your progress. This district was hard when I was in school before the pandemic and I can’t imagine that COVID has done it any favors. Students who are queer, disabled, mentally ill or of color are already at such high risk with statistics of suicide, self harm, and violence by other students being far higher than that of others. We need as much help as we can get and taking away such valuable resource is dangerous. The education of adults in this district should not be left up to the children who have enough on their plate as it is. I’m calling today for the district to reverse that decision in the future. Men have their relationship with a queer endeavor and take further steps to ensure that these students have support. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 17:12
Thank you saving Aaron dodge. Aaron dodge. is Aaron not here. All right, so I’m going to move on to page Reagan. Are you here? Did I say that correctly? Yeah, he did. All right. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 17:36
Yeah, thank you. My name is Pedro. Again, I live at 3432 East 14th Avenue. Thank you for that too. in Denver, Colorado. 802 a six. I’m echoing the sentiment of other speakers thus far. I come here as a teacher, I’m a doctoral student in education research. And I’m also someone invested in public education across my home state of Colorado. Similarly to others, I speak to you today regarding the district’s response to push back against the recent educator Institute for equity and justice, directed under the leadership of the community trusted organization, a queer endeavor. Recently, I keep thinking of the wisdom of therapist Margaret Paul, wisdom I shared at this institute that seemed to resonate with participants as her invitation is so familiar. Paul invites us to consider how in each moment, we have the important decision of whether to choose love or to choose to avoid pain. I honor and recognize the tensions born of serving in leadership positions over a school district, the fear of the pain incurred by disappoint disappointing community members, and the potential presumed pain born of the discomfort of challenging the status quo. an unwavering commitment to equity and justice, however, depends on decisions rooted in love, rather than avoidance or fear. In my experience, working in classrooms, out of school spaces and leading professional development for teachers, I’ve never witnessed the kind of integrity and intentionality exhibited by the organization across endeavor. Every single thing this organization does is deliberate, never haphazard. The stakes are too high. The commitment and allegiance to teachers and students Dr. Sarah Staley, Dr. Beth Elian, rd and Brittany Laura Hernandez exemplify and their work is unparalleled, truly, and it’s hard work. The students are saying brain Valley School District and the committed teachers and staff members deserve unwavering support and vision on behalf of equity and justice. And for these invaluable members of the district to learn that such a vision wavered, based on the fear of a few does not send the message that I believe you value and your own commitment to this district. So I appreciate the time and thank you so much for your service.
Unknown Speaker 19:53
Thank You page. Kelly Taylor Russell Kelly here.
Unknown Speaker 20:01
Hi Kelly.
Unknown Speaker 20:07
My name is Kelly. I live at 838 Fourth Avenue and Lyons. My pronouns are she hers, and I have two kids in St. Green Valley School District. I have two concerns. One is the split from queer endeavours. Other folks have mentioned. teaching the experience of queer folks and their history is not a controversial issue. It’s also not a religious issue. persecution in the name of religion is nothing new and is taught throughout our curriculum. The mother of a trans child shared with me that as a parent of a trans child, her existence is not optional. Without this fact woven into the curriculum, she is left to explain herself to her peers and our teachers. This is not helpful to her identity or to her mental health. Or to her confidence, if the curriculum included identities of all kids, woven in, children would get an education that included my child, just like cisgender children get. It’s as simple as understanding that identity is not a preference, it is a birthright. I know that each of you have probably had an experience of belonging, belonging to this board, to your schools, to your families, to your community. You’ve seen yourself or maybe you haven’t seen yourself reflected in history books, and in your health classes. And either way you know that something is missing, and we will hold you accountable to that knowing you also have stellar credentials, you lead powerful organizations, you know what it means to have the support of your community. So let’s give that support to the LGBTQ community. In the classrooms, the kids in the desks, the teachers at the front of the class, the queer parents, grandparents, community staff, that that you are really willing to risk your significance to save lives. We’ve heard about the suicide risks. 42% of queer kids last year considered suicide. Let’s educate all students, all teachers, all administrators, to be unabashedly claiming the worth and value of our queer friends. If you could invite the LGBTQ community to the table to help create this, whatever new curriculum is going to happen through the equity equity department. How will teachers be educated? What’s the curriculum who’s qualified to deliver this? My next point is about gsase. In from what I know, and I could be wrong gsase are not allowed to advertise on the website of schools on the main website. They’re also not allowed to post on any bulletin board that’s available, they also do not have guaranteed access to make announcements on the mornings. And this is a policy that you could change, you could create a whole policy just for gsase so that these kids know exactly where they can go to have belonging to have their peers. I know you’re concerned about the mental health of our students. This has been a topic of, of great discussion in the last several board meetings right about masks are no masks. This is serious. We have reams of data about kids and the risk of suicide. And it would be really simple, I think, to create this policy to make GSA school sponsored, make them public. Get those those meetings on the waiting queue Kelly, thank you so much.
Unknown Speaker 23:19
Thank you. Melissa martyr.
Unknown Speaker 23:32
My name is Melissa martyr and I live in Firestone. I think it’s great that we have so many concerned community members and parents here tonight. I know that I’ve speaking about a queer endeavor before. My personal space stance is that to queer a classroom and turn teachers against parents is completely unacceptable. I’m going to read some titles from a queer endeavor just so that everyone understands. One of them says queer that class. Another one says silencing and classroom libraries. Another one says teacher leadership team of equity, a two year implementation plan for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Eagle crest Elementary, teaching the Canon through the equity and justice lens. The impact of sex and sexuality education on ain’t LGBTQ individuals who magnetizing writing practices, LGBTQ plus and an imagined community teachers as resistors bringing our lessons to our classrooms. This one I actually sat in one because I wanted to find out exactly what this event was telling our educators. Classrooms should only be the Colorado academic standards. There is a line, anything below that and anything above that. It’s completely unacceptable. I’ve heard that from the board’s mouth. That is on the website should not be anything but that anything below or above is completely unacceptable. I’ll say it again. While I agree that students do need support, LGBTQ plus, that should be a parent’s choice. And that should be a household discussion. And I understand that some children cannot have these discussions with their parents, I completely understand that. And I’ve been hearing that for months. But when you’re meeting with a group of students, and a school, or a district or a library, and you’re telling children on your website and in person, that what happens here stays here, and that you’re supposed to keep things secret from your parents, is also completely unacceptable. I agree that they need support, but it does not happen in the classrooms. And I say this with no phobia whatsoever. I also say this with love, that it does not belong in our classrooms. This teachers as resistors class was literally teaching our educators some in this district to resist the parents input on what their children learn in school, to come in and clear the lessons that their children are getting into comment and clear the classroom. That is not a cat, Colorado academic standard. And there is so many on here I won’t even go through all of them because y’all already know everything. Y’all already know all of these events. Y’all have all the documentation. It does not belong in our classrooms. And that is the stance of for my children at a school in this district, and for a lot of parents and I support them. And I appreciate you guys being here tonight. Whether you believe me or not, but it does not belong in the classrooms.
Unknown Speaker 26:39
Thank you, Melissa. Thank you. Eric Cusick.
Unknown Speaker 26:45
Hi, Eric.
Unknown Speaker 26:50
My name is Eric Cusick 2213 Joel street 80501 in Longmont. I’m in a committee member and a proud parent of three adult children, two of whom are graduates of st reign Valley School District, muscle a board member of P flag, an active member of my church, and on their board of elders. I come to ask you to reinstate funding for queer endeavor, and their vitally important work of helping to ensure that LGBT kids have a place in this school district. As a Christian with a transgender child, it’s critically important that both Christian kids and LGBT kids are welcome and safe in the district. cutting funding has told parents that LGBT kids are neither welcome nor safe in the school district. I consider myself politically independent. But I grew up as a conservative Lutheran in even more conservative Utah, and married my sweet conservative LDS wife of 30 years. Because of our Christian, conservative Christian convictions in the past, we were nervous about LGBT people. When I moved to Colorado from Utah, we picked St. vrain. Because it’s more conservative than liberal boulder where I work. And I have to admit, until we found out we had a transgender child, I would not have supported queer endeavors work. But I also didn’t have an answer to how LGBTQ kids and conservative Christian kids can both live in the same district. And that’s the imperative that you have as a board. And it’s what I heard you state, Josie as the president that that is what you intend to do. We knew Christian and LDS LGBT people had on struggles, but we totally didn’t get transgender people. We had thought that transgender people simply had crazy liberal parents who wanted the opposite gender, child. But when our child came out as transgender, we had to admit we were wrong. We also found that St. reign school district was not addressed that would allow our youngest to thrive, much less survive. So I started driving my transgender daughter to Boulder Valley. I think saint brain has made progress since then. But the recent action tells me that we have not. I asked that funding be restored and if not funding for similar work be reinstated. I also ask that you reach out to LGBTQ children’s and families in district and let them know how you intend to repair the damage that has been done. There’s withdrawal of funding affects queer endeavor directly, but it also has informed both parents
Unknown Speaker 29:56
Okay, thank you, Eric. Okay. Slater Carroll,
Unknown Speaker 30:02
Flint.
Unknown Speaker 30:05
is Clint Carroll here this evening? No. And I give one more opportunity for Aaron dodge. All right, then I’m going to move on next. Gen mckarrick. Guys, how is everybody? Hi, Jen.
Unknown Speaker 30:26
My name is Jen mckarrick Henderson 806 pr zero. Look, I know we’re almost out of time. So I’m just, I’m just going to say a couple, just a couple of things, right? Y’all know, I agree with Melissa. Okay. The district and the teachers in this district are not co parents. They are there to teach my kids academic excellence, not morals, teach the golden rule. Teach acceptance. I’m sure that everybody in their households are teaching that I know. That’s what I teach mine. Right? teaching and morals, though that’s a whole different, that’s a whole different subject. That is not something that belongs in the schools. It’s not something that belongs at anywhere. You and I have had conversations, right? I don’t expect anybody to, you know, start hanging up crosses and, you know, Bible thumping all over the place, right. But I do expect my kids to be able to go into an environment that is teaching them to that the same things that I’m teaching them or I guess, in other words is teaching is is not teaching them to not believe that the morals and the values that I’m teaching my kids, I don’t know if I’m making any sense, but there it is. You know, I I do agree, I think that if there is needs to be funding to the counselors that can have better educating if they can be better educated in some of the things that LGBTQ stuff, right? Because the reality of it is, is there are kids in our district that do identify with that with with with with that community, right. So there does need to be some type of outreach that they can go to. But it needs to be something that is sought out by that child, and by that child’s parents, right? Not something that’s shoved down my kids throats. And I guess that’s all that I’ve got. Thank you guys for listening. I do appreciate everything.
Unknown Speaker 32:34
Thanks, Jen.
Unknown Speaker 32:35
Gabby Clark. Gabby, are you here? Hi, Gabby.
Unknown Speaker 32:48
Hi, I’m Gabby clike. My addresses 3577 likes for Dr. And 805 and Longmont, Colorado. I am a student at no high school who admittedly has a good GSA program. I was part of a meeting today, and they are pretty accepting. But I’m funding taking back funding for the queer endeavor organization is definitely not ideal from a queer student like me. I’ve yet to personally experience hardcore homophobia, any school I’ve attended. But I have friends who have faced threats from other kids with guns, and been verbally abused in the hallways. And I think gsase are a place where my friends and other kids who have faced that, or even homophobia at home can feel safe. So right wing people or people who are targeting gsase. Now, Willie, are threatening the safety or the feeling of safety in the comfort of children at school. I think LGBTQ issues and curriculum should be taught at schools so kids can feel safe. And kids know that they can go to their teachers with correct pronouns correct gender, and they don’t have to be scared to correct gender during attendance at the beginning of the year, or correct names that they know that they are accepted in that classroom. And they are accepted by their peers during their times at school, when most definitely when they don’t have support at home because when you don’t have support at home, and don’t have support at school you can feel out of place in the world. is very, very horrible feeling as a personal I do personally know, being scared to come out to my own parents about certain things. Thank you. That’s really all I have to say.
Unknown Speaker 35:16
Thank you, Gabby. Natalie absher Natalie,
Unknown Speaker 35:26
are we good Brian on time I forgot to check with you. Where
Unknown Speaker 35:29
are we? Okay, after this one, though, it’d be 30 minutes. Great.
Unknown Speaker 35:32
Thank you very much. Hi, Natalie.
Unknown Speaker 35:35
And Natalie Abshire live in Meade. And what I want to talk about tonight is really based around everything everybody else is talking about. And one of the things I notice here is, number one, nobody is recognizing that parents are part of the equation in raising their own children. As much as the school is involved. The parents are involved more. And when we talk about the queer endeavor workshops, a lot of that was about keeping the parents away, or out or silenced. And you can’t do that. We all have children, I’ve raised my children, they all went to St. vrain. they’ve graduated. Now I have grandchildren here. Parents have to be involved. The other thing I notice is that there’s no unity between different opposing views. Much like there’s no unity in our country today. You know, I don’t see anybody from you know, so far I’ve noticed right wing, I’ve noticed, Christian, I’ve noticed conservatives, kind of used in a derogatory way here today, but I don’t see any unity. We clapped when when you guys all spoke, nobody clapped when we spoke. So if you want to solve this problem of diversity, equity, inclusion, LGBTQ in the in the schools, why don’t you try including parents in the equation, instead of trying to push them away? Parents have a right to know what their children are going doing at school. If my child was going to school and going out on smoker’s Hill and smoking pot every day, I think somebody would tell me that his parent teacher conference, if my child is going to school, and changing their clothes from one gender to another, I would want this school to tell me that, and I don’t think it should be a secret. It’s a think about it this way. We all graduate from high school, but we don’t graduate from our families, and our families have a right to know. And our families will be part of our lives forever. Teachers are only there for 12 years. So that’s really all I had to say. I’m a little bit worked up. I don’t know, I’m not usually worked up, but I am tonight, because come together people. We’re not saying we’re transphobic or homophobic or any any phobic. But no one talks to us. No one talks to the parents. No one talks to the adults that raise the children. Why don’t you try that? That’s all I have to say.
Unknown Speaker 38:03
Thank you, Natalie. Yeah, no. Don’t worry. I see somebody raising their hands.
Unknown Speaker 38:16
Well, you’re okay. By far away from you. So don’t worry about it. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 38:20
All right, Brian, that was 30 minutes. Correct. Great. Thank you. That brings us to the end of our public comment this evening. I want to thank everybody who attended. We appreciate your perspective. Thank you very much. JOHN, that brings us on to agenda item five with this, which is the superintendent’s report.
Unknown Speaker 38:48
All right. Thanks, Joey. I just want to start out with a COVID update. We have we get our website is up and so you can follow it. And Kerry’s done a great job of putting that dashboard up. Right now we have about we only have one staff member who is quarantine. And then we have less slightly less than 1% of our students are quarantined right now. And that’s kind of a it’s a dynamic process because some will come back in and others will get quarantine. And many students that are quarantined are in those early years, primarily kindergarten years, preschool, and community schools. Not all of them. We do have some secondary schools or students, but that’s where students have not yet had access to a vaccine. And that’s where we’re seeing now they do quarantine kindergarteners and preschoolers and Community School students in a little bit different Way process, then they do other students first grade on through 12. The other update that I want to give you is with our health insurance plan. And, Greg, you might were I don’t know, I thought Greg, Greg and his team gave us a report does not look like we’re going to experience
Unknown Speaker 40:19
increases in our health insurance plan. I mean, when I say that, it could be a little, just a tiny bit, but really nothing of any substance, which is really good, because that’ll make the second year in a row. And it’s always good to know that the, the increase in salary isn’t countered by an increase in health insurance. And we all know how, you know, how much health insurance costs. So that was a really good thing. So Greg, thank you for your team’s work and for everybody that’s involved. And then the last thing, well, second, the last thing, the SS er, dollars that we have received, we, you know, we first received the CRF funds, and then we received s one. And then we received s or two, when we recently had s or three approved, S or three requires that we receive community input. And so we are doing that in a variety of different ways. Our reports will be due in December. And Greg, correct me if I’m mistaking that, but my understanding is, it’s due in December. And yesterday, I spoke at the rotary. And we talked to them, among other things about this, be speaking to the chambers. And we’ll speak to them mentioning at the board that anybody who wants to provide input can log into our website, and go to the place where they log in, or they can call our finance department, speak to Greg feet, we’ll also be talking with the leadership of the Teachers Association. And that means the President, the Vice President, and then all of the teacher, a RS when I attend their meetings, we’ve talked to all the principals and we’ll continue to do that at our leadership council and the directors and the assistant superintendents and so on, we’ll be talking about and gather when I say talking about it, I mean gathering input when giving people information as to where they can get their input. And so we’ll be doing that at leadership, st rain with a whole host of parents. And then you know, I also have a series of town hall meetings that are scheduled, and we will be bringing the topic up there. And we’ve also will be asking the newspaper, when they put out a story to invite the public to log into our website or to contact our district to give input s are three has some restrictions, and we will follow them to the tee. And overwhelmingly the majority of our money from assar. And all of these as our funds is going into increasing student time in the classroom, increasing instructional time, after school time school in the month of June, and a whole host of other things. So we look forward to getting that. And then the last thing, this is the last thing, I had a chance to help very, very briefly serve lunch at Central Elementary. And the kids there today had fresh peach. They had a scoop of hot vegetables, carrots, broccoli, and tomatoes. And they had a scoop of corn and scoop of mashed potatoes, and some chicken nuggets and then juice or milk or water. And, you know, it’s really, it’s really heartwarming to see the kindergarteners walking through the line getting their food and saying one, you know, instance Can Can I have a little more and absolutely you can. So that was the highlight of my day. And we’ll continue to do those kinds of things to get as close to the to the students and the teachers and the staff as we can. I really want to commend the the Nutrition Services Department. They were really welcoming and warm and kind hearted to our children. And that was that was really nice. Nice time well spent. So a lot of other things I could share, but but I’ll stop there. Thanks, Don.
Unknown Speaker 44:06
Dr. Haddad, can I also share just a few updates? Yes. And I’m learning services. Is
Unknown Speaker 44:11
that okay? That would be that would be great. Thank you. Great.
Unknown Speaker 44:15
So our schools are off to a great start. Many of us have been in schools for the last several weeks. Later this month, you’re going to hear our latest achievement data related to our state testing last spring, but also the results of some of our summer programming. And you’ll hear a little bit more about our triple a strategy to extend learning time for our students this year. We’re excited about that work. In addition to a really strong focus on literacy and math This year, we’re asking our principals to refocus on and utilize our wellness curriculums to help our students adjust and recalibrate, to being back in school with full classrooms of children. And so we are we are focused on that in terms of enrollment in FTD Since the beginning of August, we’ve monitored our enrollment trends and allocated additional staff to schools and have that have increased enrollment or have hot spots in their class. Class sizes. We’ve made 63 adjustments to school staffing in the last month, and we’ve added almost $2 million in resources directly to our classrooms. In that time, we’ve started to see our enrollment kind of stabilized here. And we think our schools are in really, really good shape in terms of staffing at this point. And then, just because equity work is has been the topic of conversation this evening, I want to update you just a little bit on where we are with that we continue to have a deep and consistent commitment to our diversity, equity and inclusion work here in St. Bryan, we call that our dei work. In June, we train teams from all 60 of our district schools on creating a foundation for equity, which included a review of our vision, our vision and commitment to our dei work, an understanding of the federal and state anti discrimination laws and how they pertain to schools and classrooms and instruction. We did some norm setting and agreements that serve as a conduit for meaningful dialogues related to dei. And we explored the levels of cultural responsiveness and the effective practices in a school setting. principals and school teams were given resources to continue this work during late starts throughout the remainder of the school year, our in house, the dei and our department of equity and inclusion. One of our trainers who previously worked for the Colorado Department of Education provided continues to provide equity training across our district and to develop and support our district training sessions, and has also identified some professional services outside of the district should we need additional expertise in any of our areas. And then finally, our community Diversity Committee meetings have been scheduled. And we look forward to collaborating with parents and members of our community and understanding the needs of all of our children, and developing strategies to continue to support their success in St. Marie. So thank you for allowing me to do those updates as well.
Unknown Speaker 47:16
Thank you, Jackie. That’s helpful. And Don, thank you. And I couldn’t agree with you more, it’s so important to get close to the reason why you do the work. And so being in the in the lunchroom with the kids and serving food. Honestly, I think that sounds like a blast. It is good stuff. I agree. Alright, that brings us to agenda item 6.1, which is a report on the 2016 bond activity.
Unknown Speaker 47:43
ever good. Brian? Hey. Um, yeah, and Brian sizzlers. gonna set up for the for the presentation. But as Brian and I were going through the bond work that’s been done to date. And, and I read 250 classrooms. And I took a step back and said, 250 classrooms we’ve added to our district. And as you know, the bond program was voted into voted by the voters voted into existence by the voters and November of 2016, it was 460 million. As we’ve always done, we leverage different funding sources, best grant opportunities, as well as interest dollars. And we’ve added about 50, a little over $50 million to that program. So presently, we’ve spent what 298 million we have about, I want to say 18 million left in the bond program to spend out. And so so as Brian and I were talking, and I realize that it’s hard to put into words, what we’ve actually done in the last four years, so so I’ll just refresh if that’s okay. If you recall, and what was it early 2016. The board allowed us to spend some 2008 interest dollars and begin designing schools for this program. Those two schools were Grandview and soaring heights. So we opened those schools. soaring heights opened in fall of 2018. And, and, frankly, it was a huge success. And I believe Grandview opened in 2018, as well. And yeah, what a huge success that that we jumped into that we immediately launched into building the additions to the high schools. And, and again, what a tremendous success. We and we continued marching long, if you will, and so 2017 2018 we open schools 2019, we opened some large additions to our high schools. Spring of 2020, we were hit with COVID. And, and I remember sitting down with our, with our construction team. And we said, you know, how do we play this out? First off, what are other school districts doing? Well, construction is shutting down, people are holding back. And as we talked with, we said, you know, let’s move forward in a safe fashion and keep everybody safe. But we understand the need to, to complete the work that we’ve been assigned. And so we continued forward, we asked our contractors to maintain the highest quality of safety and security. They they did temperature checks. And frankly, we were very successful. And I remember when, when other construction projects were shutting down. Those companies were sending their people to us. And so we continued to march forward through the bond program. Today, COVID is hitting us in a different way. And we’re seeing shortages really across across the district. But with that, I’m going to hand it off to Brian, who really has been instrumental in running the program. And so, Brian, it’s all yours.
Unknown Speaker 51:36
Okay. Right. Thanks, Brian.
Unknown Speaker 51:38
Hi, Brian. Hello, thanks for being here. Yes,
Unknown Speaker 51:41
ladies and gentlemen, the board. Madam President, Dr. adad. Thank you for the opportunity to see you need to speak with you and present a construction update on the 2016 bond. I am Brian Swiss, I’m the construction manager for the district. In this presentation. We will go through each feeder touch upon previous projects that have been completed. We’ll talk about what has been done over this past year and what is coming up so as I go through, please feel free to jump in with any questions. Any comments. So with that, I’ll get started and just roll into Erie And much like Brian had spoke about before. So far over the course of the bond. in Erie soaring heights, p k. Grandview elementary schools have opened. The additional area high has been complete, as well as security improvements at Black Rock elementary and building preservation at Erie middle. Last year when I spoke at this time, actually construction was underway at Highlands and very much in the thick of COVID. But we had a great team out there to keep pushing through in a safe manner. And since then, it has completed and it’s open for students to start the school year. Highlands elementary just to recap as a 70,000 square foot for brown elementary school and the Erie Highlands community. And while we’re excited about this, you know being a new beautiful building. We are really excited about the educational value that brings with it. As a construction department, we strive to keep pace with the direction of education and work outside of the construction department to deliver spaces like the stem lab and learning pods that you see here and really add value to our schools by creating spaces that allow for innovative thinking to take place every day. We believe this project shows that and are excited to see how it impacts student education down the road. Also complete in Erie. This summer was the bond project at Erie Elementary School. This project was mostly geared towards building preservation and those are items such as plumbing fixtures and plumbing equipment upgrades, site drainage improvements in floor replacement. And while building preservation isn’t as glamorous as say a new building like Highlands. It is an essential aspect of the bond program. It helps us function at a high level so we can continue to operate and maintain the district’s facilities for the years ahead. Moving on to the Silver Creek feeder. previous projects complete have been the security improvements and classroom additions at Blue Mountain and Eagle crest elementary schools. The classroom addition and remodel at Silver Creek High School and the building preservation and remodel at altona. currently under construction is the aquatic center of St. Green Valley schools. This edition at Silver Creek is an eight lane training and competition pool. With the diving well all the associated pool equipment and mechanical rooms, public restrooms and team rooms. In this side you can see the construction of the precast pool box and currently site work is progressing. Mechanical electrical plumbing Ruffin is progressing as well in the pool area with the goal of opening in mid November with the plan to open in mid November. This next slide shows the construction in the pool box with the pool slab on the left before the pool deck before the pool deck was poured. And then on the right, it shows the construction with the dance floor to progress all the work above the pool. And in that picture on the right you can also see solar tubes and the amount of daylight energies this introduces to that area, which will be exciting to see when that is open. And then here here’s a rendering of the pool showing the diving well and the starting blocks on the east deck. As well as the spectator area on the north, the North deck of the pool, the spectator the spectator area will see 124 people moving to lions. Previously complete was the lions elementary school remodel, the preschool classroom addition and site accessibility improvements. currently under construction is it Performing Arts edition at Lyons middle senior. This project consists of a 16,000 square foot addition that provides an auditorium with the seating capacity of 424 people the stage scene shop, storage area and dressing rooms. Also in this project, they have performed upgrades to the existing HVDC system controls and fire suppression within the existing building.
Unknown Speaker 56:29
Getting back to the Brian’s comments again about the impacts to COVID. This project unfortunately has been hit by those impacts on material and labor resources. We also have challenging weather pattern challenging weather patterns in the late winter and early spring. We missed our target to have this edition open for the start of school. But the team is rallying and continue to push forward to open in mid October. Again, this slide shows the progress in the auditorium as well as the sandstone accent wall which showcases a prominent feature of the lions community. And it’s a really nice feature of the job that the design and construction team incorporated into the project. This is a rendering of what it will look like at completion and just shows us how beautiful It’s going to look and we’re excited to have it open and as well as see the impact it has on the school and the community. And go all the way out to Frederick from Lyons previously complete with a secure entrance improvements that legacy elementary school and prairie Ridge elementary school complete this last May was the Frederick High School edition. This project delivered a nine classroom addition added parking, improved site drainage and addressed settlement of interior concrete. While this addition as general classrooms and science labs. This project also focused on providing a functional space for p tech for the P tech program by providing collaboration spaces for students in flexible spaces for p tech events and meeting in meetings with industry partners. So as you can see in these pictures between those three classrooms or operable walls, open it up for large gatherings as well as the operable wall in the collaboration room to facilitate those meetings with industry partners and student events for p tech. Moving on to the meat feeder. Previous accomplishments have been the additions that meet high and need middle as well as the new elementary school pictured here, which opened up last year. Complete this summer as a security improvement project at Centennial Elementary. This project involved discussions with our safety and security team in school staff to create sorry to create an effective and functional secure point of entry with a waiting area that has a direct connection with the admin office all the while controlling access to the rest of the building. Also part of this project was converting the whole admin area to an innovation lab and replacement of the countertops and flooring at the bathroom pods in the nyuad feeder previous accomplishments to date, the secure entrance and bus and bustling parent drop off reconfiguration has been completed and I would Elementary, the bond project at Burlington to address site drainage and Ada improvements has been complete. And then I will High School Learning Commons improvements and building invigoration project has been complete. But in the next this slide we built off of phases one and two at night well High School and this summer, the building rebranding and Wayfinding project was complete This project provided a new entrance structure, identifying the entrance for visitors, new building signage, and new Wayfinding new Wayfinding monuments and these Wayfinding monuments are now High School is the first location that has them. So it’s really been interesting over the past few weeks to see how visitors use them to navigate the campus in the skyline feeder, to date, the secure entrances and classroom additions have been completed at Alpine and Fall River elementary schools. The classroom edition at Skyline is complete, as well as the completion of building preservation at trail Ridge Middle School. Another security improvements project complete this summer was at Columbine Elementary, much like Centennial elementary this project enhanced the main entrance with a secure waiting area that has a direct connection with the admin office that controls access to the rest of the building. In this project, the front office area also under what a small remodel, new LED lighting was installed. improvements were made the site concrete and site drainage exterior masonry was repaired as well as added graphics and branding.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:16
In the Longmont feeder. The projects that have been completed to date on the remodel and building preservation at Long’s peak Middle School. At Sanborn Elementary, the pre ground pre k playground, roofing and parking lot expansion project, field lighting upgrades that really field the admin edition Commons remodel and building envelope improvements at llama High School. This year, the Vaughn project at lamona states was a another building preservation project that include items such as painting of the exterior metal panels, site fencing and site concrete improvements, Media Center improvements and an additional bottle filler. Another building praise preservation project complete this summer was at Westview Middle School. The items completed at Westview include site lighting improvements, floor replacement and all student and staff restrooms. A computer lab remodel which is shown here. That’s something we have seen complete at other schools to really transform classrooms with fixed seating and more flexible usable space. Also parts of this project were the running track drainage and surfacing improvements, installing bottle fillers roller shades and replacing the metal roof at Mountain View Elementary. This project provided Ada access at the stage and improved playground access performed site drainage improvements improvements and provided additional music room storage. Kind of just a touch on the lift at the stage. This lift is backstage so which allows those who need to use the lift to use it readily and discreetly and have access to the stage. Lastly, we’ll cover the alternative district wide and Academy schools. So at the beginning of the bond, there was a large focus on the charter schools. And that focus would have been items such as the new gym and cafeteria at Aspen ridge. Interior remodels at Twin Peaks in Flagstaff hpac upgrades, interior classroom finishes and security improvements at carbon Valley. And then in addition to the charters the new innovation center opened in 2008 teen security security cameras were installed throughout the elementary schools, CDC and slogan arrows formerly CDC and Olga, those underwent remodel projects. And the main street and the mainstream school underwent a major educational suitability and functional improvements project. Complete this summer was phase two Spark. So similar to phase one, phase two expand on educational suitability improvements that provided better site control with direct classroom access, added restrooms and classrooms, and upgraded classroom projector systems. There’s also upgrades to the electrical service for the building and mechanical systems. And really, it’s kind of difficult with pictures to show what has been done at Spark. But the value of this project I believe is really, really how to help the day to day functionality to provide the best education experience for our preschool students not having to interrupt for bathroom breaks and being able to focus on education. So that kind of that wraps up where we have been. I’d like to touch base on where we’re going. Over the next year we’ll have projects to complete at Central Rocky Mountain in Indian pigs elementary school for security improvements as well as well as the The preservation projects at Red Hawk, sunset hygiene, Northridge, Thunder Valley and Timberline. So I guess in closing, I just like to thank the board and Dr. adad. for their time this evening, Brian lamer, and Rick Rufino for their guidance and leadership, our construction project managers coordinating architect, design and construction partners for all the hard work over this last year. And previous, and schools and staff are supporting the process and work alongside of us is not always easy. Are there any questions?
Unknown Speaker 1:05:29
Thanks, Brian,
Unknown Speaker 1:05:30
I have I took notes furiously. I will give the board an opportunity to comment first. And maybe I’ll cross a few things off of that list. I won’t take up quite as much of your time. So any board member comments or questions this evening? Karen,
Unknown Speaker 1:05:49
I was the co chair of the community Task Force on the bond in 2015, before it passed, and I remember just looking over these millions of dollars of improvements, and so many of them are not shiny objects like we’re seeing today. And I know that many of them were just absolutely necessary for maintenance. But I just am always blown away. I’ve said this at a meeting before, but I’m just blown away at the amount of efficiency that that your department runs with. So thank you so much. And thanks for the nice presentation. pretty pictures.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:35
Yeah, it’s also want to say thank you for the presentation and kind of putting it all together, you know, seeing so much of this in person at different points. But to have it all in one places is really helpful. And a great reminder of, of all the work that has been done and it’s all just excellent, great work and appreciate everything that went into it, just on this note, I’m looking at Spark, it’s you know, how big of a deal that is right for a teacher not to have to leave a three year old, leave a classroom and to stay in that space and, and be able to like, as you said, stay in the, in the learning environment is a is a huge deal and learning in ya know, always see, you know what that really looks like. But it’s great to go through the spaces with educators and have them tell what that what that means to them. And and spark is one that really sticks out to me. So I’m sure every single one of the things that you presented today has that kind of impact, what it means to have a refresh track, all those kinds of things are really big deal. And even more so when you see people are using them on a day to day basis to see their appreciation for the work that’s been done. So I’ve heard some of that and seen some of that. And so I just want to let you all know that as well.
Unknown Speaker 1:07:54
You know, one thing, if I could share just a second, you know, Brian mentioned something at the beginning. And both of you actually mentioned about it, it’s really noteworthy because our bond, I think was worth 260 point 3 million, right. And they budget in that to protect us from inflation. But because of the work that the team did their team, they were able to build an entire new elementary school out in Mead, which was never in the plans. And they were able to build that brand new swimming pool, which was never, you know, in the plans. And we’re going to be putting, you know, some turf out at some football field. I guess my point is what I have seen across the state from other districts is COVID did catch them. And it’s not just COVID it’s been traditional that other districts get caught by inflation. But when I think about the history, and I think about things like you know, Erie Middle School, all that entire renovation was done by outperforming the bond project and the list goes on and on and on. So in our gracious taxpayers gave us the money for the bond. We were able to not only deliver on that, but also more. And we were having a conversation yesterday. I’m a member of the rotary and we were having a conversation there and talking about how our bond ratings. years ago were at the very bottom after our bankruptcy. And now we’re one of the few districts that has the highest bond ratings in the state. And we’ve been able to refinance since 2010, several times saving our taxpayers about $36 million. And I want to make sure because Brian and his team make this look so easy. But it is incredibly difficult, incredibly difficult to manage the winter months COVID you name it. And it’s just stellar. So thank you for that. You bet and Thank you for an excellent report. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:10:05
I’m actually going to piggyback just a little bit on what Don and Chico said, because I was exactly going to say that dawn that this, and also what Karen said about from the beginning watching this from six years ago, to now, it has become so much more because of the financial responsibility and the management I even someone mentioned about I think you did, about using the interest money to develop the plans just in case it got passed, you know, sort of those like really positive, anticipating moves, so that we could move really, really quickly and get so much done. And there. The work that is done is absolutely beautiful, like aesthetically beautiful. The learning environment to me, is so foundational, like we were those kids sit, where they stand, where they move, where they interact, where they listen, where they see, like that is so foundational to me, I mean, because there was a time 20 years ago, not just in this district, but everywhere where you’d get it, you get an architectural plan, and it was cookie cutter, and you would you would spot it out. And we live with some of those today. Because that was financially cheap. That was inexpensive. That’s what we had to get done. But now, like we still with the same financial responsibility, we look at each site, we look at each community and they’re just, they’re incredible, like those kids want to be there. They want to go to school, the teachers want to be there, the aesthetics matters so much. And it’s just so impressive that we keep pushing the envelope on the educational standards and the flow of the classroom and the acoustics in the classroom and you name it, you know all those kind of details. But it’s really it’s so impressive. It’s It’s incredible. I can’t thank you enough on behalf of the the the taxpayers and the families in this community what we’ve been able to provide for our children, so thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:11:55
No, actually along those lines Paula Mainstreet school boy, if you haven’t been in there, we would have changed. But one of the comments of principal said was the change that was made and and we see the sorry, here and with my phone. Before we made the changes, they have runners at the school and kids, you know, they they run from the School of frankly, she said that has dramatically decreased after our addition. And our remodel has been complete. And her only conclusion was they like being here. So they don’t want to leave. So kind of along the same lines. Yeah, we see an impact across across the board.
Unknown Speaker 1:12:48
It’s a critical piece, you know, Joe, you’ll remember this and others too. But in 2013, when we got slammed by that flood, it shut down the whole town of Lyons. And at one o’clock in the morning, we were all called to come out because button rock dam had been breached. And the roads were all wiped out because we had to turn Mainstreet school into a full blown K through 12. Pre K through 12. School in five days. And I remember your team came in and did that. And really, it was a phenomenal turnaround. But when you see the school now, it’s like an incredible facility with state of the art building state of the art playground facilities, the whole nine yards. And it all started, you know, you talk about, I hate to say never waste a good crisis, we had a crisis in that devastating flood that turned into something beautiful for our children with special needs. And our children with special needs have the among the best facilities, and the best programming that you’ll find anywhere in the state. And that’s again, a tribute to all of you and our teachers. Thank you, john. Thank you. Um,
Unknown Speaker 1:14:01
he, Dr. Dad started the ball rolling. And that’s exactly where I was gonna go to, um, you guys have really shown how organization and pre planning not only gets the project done, but gets it done under budget and, and on time, and I’m looking at the projects in Erie, mostly the most often, but I had one story I’ll share with you and that was I was meeting with one of the gentlemen that was giving me a tour of soaring heights, and he said that this was his fifth or sixth school that he had worked on. And he had never seen a project so well managed and run. And what that does is it gets us our product first. It gets us our good workers first and it makes the project just flow so much easier. And he was whistling Dixie so to speak on the jobsite. He said I’ve never We’re seeing anything this well organized, I’m not going to go into that, because I think we’ve covered the budget funds that were saved. And the amount of projects that we were able to bring on that weren’t even part of the bond, which is just extraordinary. But you didn’t really hear you mentioned anything about the COVID expansions that you’ve done to most of our schools and the H vaccine systems and the filters. And, and that was a big deal. I mean, that really made our public safe, and have that trust of the work you’ve done. So can you talk a little bit about that, I’d love to hear that.
Unknown Speaker 1:15:35
You know, and actually, john, that was part of the bond program. But it was, it was certainly a direction that the district took, it was covered under partially kept reserve as well as our general fund. Certainly the dollars that were put towards that was an was a joint effort, truthfully, Don was involved, and we were figuring things out. And, and yeah, I mean, where we are today is really a tremendous place. You know, we’ve, as you know, we’ve we’ve doubled the airflow, and our classrooms. So we went from ASHRAE requires about 30, it takes about 30 minutes to change all the air in the classroom, or we doubled that. And it’s about every 15 minutes now, which is really tremendous. We moved from a Merv eight to a Merv 11 filter, which again, is a huge effort, we change those filters out I think it’s like every six months roughly. I you know, truthfully, the list goes on. I mean, just the the effort we’ve spent and cleaning the classrooms has was just huge, and it still is a huge effort. And that was all done within our, our funds, within the district, outside of the bond program, I guess is what I would say. And to be honest with you, that continues to this day. And in fact, I just was talking with our sustainable person this morning. And she’s working with the Innovation Center to develop a program to monitor air inside of our classrooms, and then outside of our classrooms outside of the building, actually, and just monitor exactly how well our systems are doing with the double airflow and the filters, and so on and so forth. And then that will allow us to tweak our systems to make them operate more efficiently to be honest with you so so we’ve we’ve created safe environments. And now we’re going to look at that and see how we can create continue to create safe environments and maybe more environmentally, or energy conscious, if you will.
Unknown Speaker 1:17:56
Thank you very much. I guess
Unknown Speaker 1:17:58
you’re right, it wasn’t actually part of the bond funding but due to financial prowess, ness and the ability to save us dollars in other areas that allows us to expand our reach during COVID. And other I came on just as the floods were going on, and I saw this district, jump into work and get a job done to move a school was unbelievable. And you know, now I feel like I’m watching the witness in the Herculean task of Sorry, I can’t really talk with that on the Herculean task of just dealing with the pandemic. And so I congratulate you on the work you’re doing. without you. I don’t know where we would be. So thank you. You
Unknown Speaker 1:18:46
know, one other really incredible statistic I years ago, we were studying leadership, and we were studying Disney’s leadership, as you know, as part of a program and at their Park, every employee is required to never walk past a piece of trash. That’s why you’ll see it just be meticulous, the entire area. And customers will talk about how that was so powerful, that they would never want to throw anything on the ground because it just was not the thing to do. And then it also enhanced their experience. But then we transferred that study to how does the facility and the aesthetics of the facility and the feel the light, the space, the openness, how does that impact test scores and student achievement by up to 15%. by up to 15%. You can improve your academic results based on the quality of your facility because the kids come into an environment. And that’s not just the bricks and mortar. That’s the messaging that’s up on the wall, the walls about excellence about achievement you know about Hard work and all of those things. And so Brian, I remember one of the first conversations we had, he was like, you know, we want to build schools and create facilities that help kids learn and be successful and be safe. And that’s, that’s great, great work.
Unknown Speaker 1:20:15
The mainstream schools that keeps him in the school.
Unknown Speaker 1:20:22
Yeah, thank you. It’s a great report, everybody’s gonna say the same thing. But to backtrack a little bit, you know, the community has given us such support. The confidence state gain, to be able to continue to give us support comes from the effort did your guys in an organization and how you use that money over and over again, to just completely, completely convert the district. I mean, from when I started here in 204, with the district after I retired from the government was this, I’ve seen it all, because I’ve been in all these schools, and I’ve seen the changes, and I’ve seen the new structures and touring the swimming facility with you guys was just awesome. I mean, it in sort of community supported us. And hopefully the community can get to see what happened with that money that they agreed to give us for that bond for the for what they thought was a set program that exploded into what it has become now. So I’ll just keep it short. But I know you guys have a lot of respect for me for all the work that you’ve done in a way you’ve done it. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:21:40
Thank you, I will also echo the comments that really all of my colleagues, although we’ve had talked about the unrecognized, the achievement and in expanding the value of the projects that we’ve done by about $50 million. I want to just acknowledge that again, and I i think that it is a mark of good stewardship, excellent planning and unparalleled x execution of those plans. So I want to, again, recognize the value that you and your team is adding to the quality and educational experience that our students have. And the other thing that I want to recognize is your continued as a department. Your continued focus on progressively improving the learning environment for our kids. And that’s every generation of our new buildings, we see those improvements put into the design, the extra time and effort to have the lighting just dried, the pathways between classes, efficiently designed the flexibility of the learning spaces. And I want to just recognize, recall, Brian, that discussion you and I first had when I was teaching chemistry at Longmont high. And you’d heard me make a comment about science classrooms in a in a meeting some someplace. And I said, apart from long, not high, that the size classrooms throughout the districts were woefully inadequate. I remember it like yesterday, as I do. And we spent two hours after school that day and talked about what a present day science classroom should look like. And I have seen in each school as we have gone in and remodeled skylines science classrooms and then built new science classrooms that in arts, expanded plans. Progressive improvements, not just sticking with his first idea, but making each idea a little better each time and in the execution. And that’s an level of attention to detail that pervades all of the work that we’re that we’re seeing in our school building design. And it really does make a difference in as dawn, as you said, in student performance. I was last night I was at Limelight high. We didn’t talk much about the amazing work that you’ve done there. But those science classrooms and really the whole school in the north building has really been upgraded, it looks brand new, and the commitment to make sure that as we do these new buildings that we’re progressively, also going back and remodeling, and upgrading our existing buildings and classrooms so that all students, no matter where you go have a first rate educational experience. It’s just a an amazing standard you have set set for yourself, and it brings great honor to our entire district. So thank you. Awesome.
Unknown Speaker 1:25:22
It’s been a good adventure.
Unknown Speaker 1:25:24
I gotta admit, it’s not over yet,
Unknown Speaker 1:25:25
now, not yet.
Unknown Speaker 1:25:28
So I have a question about how many buildings across the district do you maintain? At this point?
Unknown Speaker 1:25:40
being maintained?
Unknown Speaker 1:25:41
How many? How many buildings? Are you responsible for across the district? Do you maintain, you know, the exact just to provide a little bit of context for roughly,
Unknown Speaker 1:25:50
I want to say we’re 50 would be a rough number slightly over that, but 5060.
Unknown Speaker 1:25:58
So if we have 60 schools, it’s closer to like,
Unknown Speaker 1:26:00
if you think about 680 pools, and then you start thinking about this building, DTS Learning Services, maybe you know, Main Street and then lastly, over there, and then the old building by Friday, what do you
Unknown Speaker 1:26:16
think that’s okay. When you said, when you said I remember it, like yesterday, all I could think in my mind was I don’t even remember yesterday, like,
Unknown Speaker 1:26:26
That’s his modesty come rise, move so fast one building, you know, three buildings seems like one.
Unknown Speaker 1:26:32
Yeah. So would it be fair to say 80? ish, 75 or 80? buildings? Yeah. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 1:26:40
That would be fair, I’ll go for that.
Unknown Speaker 1:26:41
Yeah, that’s a lot, a lot. And so not only do you maintain them, and this bond includes maintenance, you’re looking at accessibility, you’re looking at growth, you’re looking at the learning environment at the day to day functioning of the schools. And so what I really, I guess, I just want to provide a little bit of context that, that you’re doing all of this work, that you’re doing it in addition to maintaining all of those facilities, just like somebody would maintain their home. And so it’s mowing, it’s the entire entire ball of wax. And so, Brian, at the end of the day, really, I want to take an opportunity. Everybody has mentioned everything on my list. I want to thank the community one more time, because without the community, none of these projects would be possible. I also want to thank thank all of you and your department for following through on the board and Dr. Haddad’s promise to our community on what these buildings would look like and what we would deliver and this bond package. And not only did you did you meet those promises, but you far exceeded them. And so I want to recognize that and you do all of this work, I started the meeting with the clear message that this board and Dr. Haddad are committed to the mission statement of this district. All in, that’s our North Star, it’s clear that that’s your nose, North Star as well. And I thank you for that. That’s also a promise that we make to our community, and to our students, and to everybody who works in St. vrain. So thank you very much for doing that. And lastly, I’m super excited to attend attend the grand opening of Highlands on October 4. That’ll be wonderful. So thank you for everything you do. We appreciate you being here. Thank you. Good. And next time I’ll go first so I can say all this stuff, they said, how’s that? And then we can all say exactly. So thank you again, Brian for being here. All right. That brings us to our consent items this evening, which is agenda item seven do board members wish to pull any of those consent items? If not, then I would entertain a motion please for approval of agenda item 7.1. Staff terminations leaves 7.2 staff appointments 7.3 approval of minutes for the August 11 2021 regular meeting, August 18 2021 study session and August 25 2021 regular meeting and 7.4 approval of change order to to construction manager general contractor contract for Columbine renovation projects. So by Jim and a second by john, please.
Unknown Speaker 1:29:27
Mr. Arens Hi, Mr. Berthold. Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr? Yes. Miss Pierce. Aye. Mrs. Ragland, aye. Mrs. Secrets.
Unknown Speaker 1:29:40
Agenda Item eight. We have one action item this evening. That is 8.1. And it is a recommendation. It’s actually a second reading and approval for board policies j Eb entrance age requirements and j LCB. immunizations of students. Hi, Brandon.
Unknown Speaker 1:29:58
Good evening. Thank you, Madam President. g Eb entrance age requirements as you’ll all remember from our study session and then the first reading these changes were suggested by the Colorado Association of School Boards current policy does not differentiate between the start date for kindergarteners and first graders that has created some confusion. So updates to this policy address this issue and make it clear what the start dates are for different grade levels. And similarly, we’ve made some updates to board policy, J LCB. also discussed during the study session, and first reading, of course, immunization of students. These updates were also recommended by the Colorado Association of School Boards. Changes are designed to track with new a new state law that requires all districts to publish their immunization rates and exemption rates for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine vaccine.
Unknown Speaker 1:30:59
Thanks, Brandon. Any board member questions or comments this evening? on these two policies, we’ve talked about them. Pretty straightforward. I think we’re a Brandon unless you have anything additional to add. I think we’re probably ready to vote. All right. Then I would entertain a motion for approval of action item 8.1. so moved by Chico second, and a second by Karen.
Unknown Speaker 1:31:24
Mr. Arens? Mr. Berthold? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr? Yes. Miss Pierce. Hi, Mrs. Raglan. I miss siegrist.
Unknown Speaker 1:31:33
I thank you, Christy. That brings us to the conclusion of our meeting this evening. The board will convene again on Wednesday, September 15, at 6pm for a study session at apex. We’re looking forward to that and then we will be back in the boardroom again on September 22. At 6pm for another regular meeting. Want to thank everyone for joining us this evening. And one more time want to thank all of the individuals who spoke during public comments. I would entertain a motion for adjournment please. so moved by Karen, second. And john. All in favor, Aye. Aye. Thanks, everyone. Drive safe.